Making a case for Cultural Historical Activity Theory: Examples of CHAT in practice (original) (raw)
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Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2019
Using computers as cognitive tools or mindtools has created impact in education since their introduction in the 1990s. One main characteristic is the notion of learning with computers as intellectual partners: engaging learners in higher level thinking while taking away the lower level cognitive load such as computing and digital storage. In recent years, the element of social interactions has been integrated, leading to the development of social cognitive tools or social mindtools. However, the differences between and underlying values of these applications may not be apparent. This article applies cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to analyse these developments so as to generate insights into the nuanced differences among various applications, including the roles of computers in distributed cognition within an activity system. CHAT can be applied to analyse contradictions within and beyond an activity system, which can help to identify opportunities for innovation and enha...
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This paper explores the role of theory and interdisciplinarity in Technology Enhanced Informal Learning, and the research community. We consider Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) but we strongly feel that our argument has broader application to the use of theory as part of the intellectual 'self-defence toolkit' that researchers and practitioners in the critical TEL community need to consider if they are to 'resist' the crises arising from educational globalisation. Theory offers us the history, scope, power, and language, that we need to be reflexively aware of both our own interests and those of others who are actors in the settings in which we are working. The paper arose from our concern to provide evidence that our work in virtual research communities (in the Inter-Life Project)-to help young people pursue their own research agendas and find their research 'voices'-was actually effective in serving their interests as well as our own. Our research revealed the centrality of learning space, community support, and creative/visual artefact production in the sustainability of these communities. We illustrate the interactions across these realms through selected examples from our Inter-Life findings. We explore how an interdisciplinary approach in TEL can support the creative confluence of learning in science and the visual arts, serving diverse cultural communities of learners. Finally, we consider resistance to the large-scale industrialisation of TEL, and its ideologies, that seems to us to be a key issue in TEL research. For example, we are concerned by the potential for surveillance and control that is contained in the whole learning analytics movement in which so many TEL researchers are becoming involved.
Proceedings of the 4th Teaching & Education Conference, Venice
In this paper the authors look at Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a lens to study education from, not only a socio-cultural perspective, but also from a socioeconomic perspective. CHAT has its origin in the work of Lev Vygotsky. It takes as a starting point that human practice is mediated by tools or signs. The unit of analysis is an activity system and, in this paper, several activity systems are used as examples to illustrate the use of CHAT. The examples used are not based on specific empirical data, but on selected literature, since the focus of this paper is to highlight the affordances and versatility of CHAT as a research lens. Rogoff stated that three planes, namely the personal, the interpersonal, and the institutional or community plane might be identified in a socio-cultural analysis using CHAT. Conventionally CHAT is used as a research lens on the personal plane, where the subject is an individual, for example, a science teacher, and the object is this teacher's professional development. Secondly, CHAT can also be used on an interpersonal plane, looking at the interaction between various stakeholders. In this article the authors look at the changing nature of the interaction between university lecturers (facilitators) and tertiary students as an example of the use of CHAT on the interpersonal level. It is particularly on this interpersonal plane that this paper highlights the complexity of the "object" in an activity system, by revealing the "contradiction of control". Rogoff identifies a third way of using CHAT, namely where the subject is a system or a theory. In this paper, we conclude with two examples of how CHAT can be used on this more systematic-theoretical plane, with the subject being South African and Finnish education respectively. This is an approach seldom used in activity theory publications. By learning from the international "gold standard" in education (Finland) South Africa might succeed in improving its education, which can, in turn, catapult economic growth. We conclude this paper by looking at the #FeesMustFall student campaign in South Africa, where we juxtapose university management's perceptions and expectations, with that of student bodies. The authors argue that the holistic view that CHAT provides on tensions within activity systems is essential in educational research in a complex 21st Century. Educational issues such as the #FeesMustFall is not simply a South African issue of concern, but a contemporary issue in a post-colonial world.
USING CULTURAL HISTORICAL ACTIVITY THEORY TO INVESTIGATE INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS
This paper reports on the progress of a research project that uses Cultural Historical Activity Theory [CHAT] as a framework to investigate the use of Interactive Whiteboards [IWBs] in the primary classroom. It will be of interest to researchers and research students considering theoretical approaches and methodologies to ICT in education research. Much of the early research on IWBs is considered superficial; however a new research paradigm, based on the notion of “interactivity”, is gaining momentum. The purpose of this project is to begin to move beyond replicating earlier findings on the educational use of IWBs by building on the work of Kennewell and others, in order to further examine the application of IWBs and their potential in education. This is to be done by using CHAT as a framework for data collection and analysis and conducting case studies of a number of IWB equipped primary classrooms to investigate and compare “interactivity”. Updates of the case studies will be presented and discussed at the conference as well as the value of CHAT as an ICT research tool.
Cultural Historical Activity Theory as influence in ECE
Popova A. (2019) Cultural Historical Activity Theory as influence in ECE. In: Peters M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Teacher Education. Springer, Singapore, 2019
Introducing CHAT This entry introduces the main postulates of the cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) following the legacy of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1943, Rus-sia/USSR). The aim is to show how these theoretical ideas have influenced early childhood education (ECE) discourse. The entry highlights how the CHAT has provided opportunities to see child development and learning as deeply contex-tual issues. The accumulation of CHAT ideas through research in practice and some advancements in policy have enabled a vision of a child and an EC educator as both part of socio-cultural-historical dynamic contexts. To sum it up, the entry is another attempt to "advance a view of meaningful professional development in ECE as fundamentally collective, situated, historically accumulating, and multi-vocal" (Nuttall 2013, p. 202). The CHAT theoretical framework is founded predominantly in the works of Lev Vygotsky and Aleksei Leontiev (1903-1979, Russia/ USSR). Vygotsky is considered to be the creator of the cultural-historical psychology, whereas Leontiev's main contribution was activity theory. Vygotsky and Leontiev's ideas have been developed in cultural psychology, education psychology , and education through a number of methodological approaches. The ideas have gradually taken roots in the Western educational thought and practices. The CHAT ideas tend to be presented as juxtaposed to the maturation and behaviorist theories which argue that a child develops in a linear progression following particular stages of development. The main reason for this juxtaposition is that CHAT transformed the ways in which child development was seen, and as maturation and behaviorist theories still carry weight, the CHAT approach tends to be presented as an alternative viewpoint. This entry does not join this trend. Instead, it attempts to lead to a deeper understanding of the roots and branches of the socio-cultural theories. Lev Vygotsky's Cultural Historical Psychology: Children's Development The main postulate of Vygotsky's (1978) cultural-historical theory claims that human development is culturally mediated. Contrary to previous claims in psychology preceding Vygotsky, the cultural-historical theory argues that humans do not depend only on stimulus and reaction for their development. Although these are important at early stages of development, Vygotsky argued that artefacts produced by human cultures played
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This article focuses on the experiences of two researchers, Wolff-Michael ROTH and Luis RADFORD, using cultural-historical activity theory in mathematics education. The aim is to provide insights into the ways these researchers see and engage with activity theory, how they have come to adopt and expand it, and some of the challenges and concerns that they have had using it. These questions are not usually addressed within typical scientific papers. Yet, they are important for understanding both the dynamics of ...
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